Category: Central Catchment

Year 2008 was the year that reminded me or let say reawakened in my self that I love nature. I love greens and forest and that led me to love mountains. When I moved to Singapore for work I knew that I am sacrificing one thing that I love that is climbing a mountain.

Singapore is a city, though it tried to maintain itself as being green city still it does not have mountains to climb. I remembered that there is one mountain that I know and that is Mount Faber where one end of Sentosa cable car is located. Aside from that mountain, I know nothing else.

When I started working in Singapore I thought that things will get excited because living in another country different from what I used to be might be an adventure. I started working in Singapore last December 2009 and to my surprised less than a month or exactly after a month, I felt bored. My colleagues at work started to feel the same way, in another two months all of us felt home sick.

I belong to a batch of IT Filipinos who was hired to work through third-party company for an investment bank in Singapore. It was the first time that I worked abroad and it’s different compared if I was sent or assigned by my company to another country.

One thing that I never thought to experienced in Singapore was trekking. My colleague at work decided to visit MacRitchie Reservoir and I joined them.

Some of us met at MacRitchie, some met at the train station. Since I was coming from Sengkang area, I took purple line from Buangkok to Serangoon station and transferred to yellow line from Serangoon to Marymount (at that time, yellow line was still half-completed). From Marymount, we took bus to MacRitchie.

–Amenities Centre

When we arrived at MacRitchie Reservoir, I already like its nature ambiance. We walked to the park’s lobby where some cafe are located. At the lobby there are shower rooms and wash rooms as well. We also found information of the park such as board map and walking trails.

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–Amenities Centre

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–Amenities Centre

We don’t have walking guide, when we started the walk near from the lobby or park amenities centre but before we begin we decided to follow the Yellow trail as it will return to the amenities center where we started. We just followed the trail as we see it. First, we turned left as we face the centre and then we turned right on our way to the Paddle Lodge, Fishing Ground and Kayak Platform.

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After passing the Dam trail and Kayak Platform, we entered the natures trail. When we were inside the forest I felt that I felt great as I reminisce the experience of climbing mountain. Walking in the trail under tall trees and surrounded by different plants and vines made me fell that I was really close with nature.

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–Inside the Forest

From the start of the trail we saw post telling how far we already walk so far. And in every post that we saw we rest a while and took our chances to take some photos. We had fun during the walk, we talked about a lot of things. Along the way, we saw resting huts and the huts has its name which was nice. There is part of the trail that we walk along the ground and some has wooden path and stairs. It made me felt that I was trekking some hills and the trail was easy to medium level. During our walk we also experienced a bit of rain.

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–HSBC Treetop Walk

We already reached the 3.5 km post. After half an hour we saw the post of HSBC Treetop Walk, and in few minutes we arrived at the front of it. Treetop Walk as per the park information that it is a free-standing suspension bridge that connects two highest point which is Bukit Pierce and Bukit Kalang in MacRitchie. We did enjoy the bridge when we crossed it. The bridge gave us a chance to have a different perspective to appreciate the forest and the park.

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–Inside the Forest

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–Jelutong Tower Top

After the Treetop Walk, we continued our trek in the forest and follow the trail we intended to finish. We climb Jelutong Tower Top as we were curious what to see. We also passed a trail part where the side itself was the reservoir. Then some part of The Singapore Island Country Club which is left side of the reservoir. One of the cool things we saw along the way was the small turtle at the side of the water reservoir.

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–The Singapore Island Country Club

Before we reached the promenade, we saw the Zigzag bridge and the Bandstand beside it.

We finished the trail same where we started which means that we took the trail that go around the MacRitchie Reservoir. Though we were quiet tired in waking and trekking, I really enjoyed what we did because I had been the similar activity back to my country.